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Christmas in the southern hemisphere takes a little getting used to since we all have the notion of the perfect white Christmas. Fashion wise it’s the hottest season of the year, literally! Sexy bikinis, festive sequins, and a gorgeous tan; what more can a fashion diva possibly ask for? Christmas, Aussie style, is all about family, friends, good cheer & fun in the sun. For a healthy tan check out our post on transforming into a bronzed beauty !

Here are some Christmas fashion tips from Chelsea Potter, a fellow blogger from the UK who blogs for Sports direct.

What to wear to a Christmas day beach party…

Christmas on the beach is so much fun. You spend time with your loved ones, play beach games and have a massive BBQ where you eat enough to last until next year… or realistically until the Boxing Day festivities. Bu what do you wear? Here are some tips to help you out this Christmas.

For starters, let’s go back to the BBQ… you are guaranteed to eat quite a bit on this day so maybe think twice about the bodycon dress. You also need to consider you may be playing beach games during the day so you’re probably best wearing something that you can move freely in. At the same time, although it’s Christmas it is also summer so show off the latest trends while you’re partying at the beach. Confused about what to wear even more? Well let me help you out.

For the daytime…

Red Bikini from the bargain boutique!

Wear a red bikini – gets you in the Christmas spirit but you’ll still look red hot! Team the bikini with denim shorts and maybe a loose vest over the top. Failing this you could wear a loose dress but if you’re bouncing up and down later then you might prefer the first option.

For the evening…

This is your time to glam up and appreciate the party season. Wear sequins or metallics but wear them on a short dress or skirt. Again you might want to opt for a looser style if you still have your food baby.

metallic dress from the bargain boutique

Christmas is a time for fun with your loved ones but as you party on the beach, it’s also a time to dress to impress.

Flawless, glowing skin is the hallmark of beauty and the first step to achieving it is to maintain a clean skin. Your skin needs to be completely free of makeup before you retire for the night. Even a smidge of makeup left overnight can result in blisters, breakouts and in some cases inflammation (eye makeup). Aussie Fashion blog’s featured makeup writer, Muskaan Ahuja a Dubai based professional Make-up and Special effects Artist has come up with simple routine make up removal remedies for heavy to soft makeup. As she is often asked which products are best she has consolidated a list of products that she has personally used and is confidant of it’s quality.

To remove very heavy makeup and daily makeup.

Heavy makeup:

Muskaan offers two solutions. One is a homemade oil mixture and the other is an easily available market product. Heavy makeup is usually designed to stay on for longer periods of time and tends to be waterproof, for example- stage or theatre makeup. It is difficult to remove this kind of makeup with simple surfactants, which are used in regular makeup removers. This type of makeup would require very harsh surfactant based makeup removers and loads of it for thorough cleansing. Muskaan offers two organic solutions, one is a home made, easy to make oil mixture and the other is an organic product readily available off the shelf.

To remove your makeup:
Step 1
Apply little bit of the homemade oil mixture on your fingertips and gently massage it in circular movements. Once the makeup has mixed well with the oil, softly wipe your face using a damp cotton pad. Repeat the process until your skin is completely free of makeup. Remember to be very gentle near the eyes as the skin in that region is very delicate. If it seeps into the eyes then rinse thoroughly with copious amounts of lukewarm water (shouldn’t be hot).

Alternatively you can use a market product.
Muskaan recommends Know-it-oil, which is readily available in the market. This is a VMV product, USDA certified (US department of agriculture) it is basically an organic virgin coconut oil that can effectively remove thick layers of make-up mainly stage or theatre makeup while providing intensive hydration.
Follow the directions given on how to use on the product.
This can be used as a daily make-up remover but she doesn’t recommend using it daily, only when you have heavy makeup on and don’t have time to whip up a homemade remedy.

Step 2

Is very important and Muskaan recommends making it a daily mantra. CTM (clean/ tone / moisturize) using your regular or favourite brands for this step.

Cleaning

Toning

Moisturising

For Daily makeup.

Step1
This kind of makeup does not need harsh surfactants so it can be removed using your regular makeup remover products by damping it over a cotton pad and wiping it gently over the face. And if you are a wipes person, apply a thin layer of your cleansing milk over the face before using the wipes as the cleansing milk will not only help to lift off more makeup but it will also prevent dryness. Muskaan doesn’t recommend using wipes as prolonged use of wipes daily can lead to dryness, soreness or sagging of skin at a later stage of life due to all that hard hand rubbing.
Muskaan uses and recommends dermalogica makeup removing products.

She recommends Neutrogena wipes but advises the use of clarins cleansing milk under it before rubbing of the make up. Makes the rubbing less harsh on the skin.

Step 2

CTM (cleansing / toning and moisturising) same as above.

Now, a common question Muskaan is asked is whether you need to use a separate makeup remover for the eyes.

Answer to this is, ‘Yes of course!”
The skin around the eyes is highly sensitive. The reason being as we don’t have a bone structure underneath the eyes to support the skin and that is why it’s called an eye socket. The skin here is thin and very sensitive. This is worse for a person with bigger or inset eye sockets, which can result in visible dark circles. This area is prone to signs of early ageing like winkles and fine lines. Excessive rubbing while removing the makeup can lead to dry and puffy eyes. In the long run puffiness around the eyes is also caused due to accumulation of leftover eye makeup particles. Makeup left overnight on the eyes seeps through the tear duct and keeps getting accumulated under the eyes leading to heavy puffiness. Sometimes, at a later stage in life to cure this one would need proper medical attention or even undergo a surgery for worst-case scenarios. Thus it is very important to thoroughly remove any kind of makeup from the eyes every night or before sleeping anytime during the day. It is good to invest in a high quality eye make remover as these are usually very mild and these effectively remove makeup without drying the skin around the eyes. Have patience while removing makeup and cleaning the eyes, remembering to be gentle.
Do not dab or rub the product directly over your eyelids using fingers. Always damp the product over a cotton pad and gently swipe over the makeup. Use an ear bud dabbed in product to remove eyeliner that is stuck in-between the lashes and corners of eyes.

Products Muskaan recommends are Lancôme eye makeup remover or Sens’eye by Make Up For Ever and Camomile gentle eye makeup remover by Body Shop.

In fact, there is this magical product by dermalogica called the PRECLENSE- it provides deep cleansing for every day use. It removes any left over makeup product on the skin. Do not use it if you are allergic to peanuts as it contains kukui nut oil.

There are many products available in the market; in fact each and every brand has a range of makeup removers for different parts of the face and for every skin type. So explore, consult and use the one which suites your skin type best.

Lastly, even after you have removed all that makeup don’t forget to Smile!

As we traverse through history it is quite shocking and saddening that we, women have been slaves to the dictates of prevailing fashion trends. Corsets that barely let a woman breath and even the odd little toe being severed so that one could fit in a shoe that was a full size smaller for the more genteel appearance of good breeding.
Having said that I must admit that fashion has accommodated to the demands of changing environments, the war most notably. Motoring suits, traveling suits, golfing suits etc. had been designed to do to exactly what fashion was supposed to do in the first place, make the wearer comfortable while still looking stylish.
Women’s liberation movement did a lot for women’s fashion but sadly today I find a reversal of the trend. In the old days we had the hobble skirts, wide at the hips and extremely narrow at the ankles, hence the name and today we have super short shorts where half your bottom lies exposed. It’s also fashionable if your pocket linings are longer than your denim shorts.
Offcourse, I should hardly be pointing that out, given that in my college days I used to run around (in a girls hostel) in denim shorts that were shorter than my T-shirts and I did raise a lot of eyebrows, mostly the nuns. In my defence I never wore it in public, no, a hostel full of girls and nuns does not count!
Rebellion? Maybe, but I blame the culture, the role models, where are the Amelia Earharts? Emmeline Pankhurst, Rosa Parks? Hunger games is a good start. Women need to be reminded of the innate power that resides within. I love JRR Tolkien but I would have loved him more if Gandalf had been a sorceress! That way C S Lewis does a fabulous job in creating Lucy Pevensie and the equally strong Susan. However, their personalities are lost in the sweeping landscape and adrenalin rush of the graphics.
It’s time we, women/girls/teens, started a new revolution, not a liberation movement but a fashion revolution. Fashion means a popular style or practice, so let us make this a popular practice, to acknowledge our inner strength and to embrace our destiny as beings of love, light and strength.
Let us as girls look upon women of wisdom and be inspired by them to march forward in life as confident women. Let us as teens idolise women of strength and character and emulate these traits in our lives. Let us, as women become role models to our sisters, colleagues, friends, and nieces, to be all that we can be. Let us as mothers mould our daughters and remind our daughter’s daughters what it means to be a true woman.
Lets start a fashion revolution!

In this day and age there is a lot of talk about weight and appearance. Nutritionist distributing diet plans and hollering out health risks involved with being obese. Plus size women demanding acceptance for their genetic predisposition and ironically joining in the chorus are naturally size zero models!

Where do I fit in? I’m trying to get everyone to focus on the main purpose, to look and feel good! If you accept your body type then you will be less sensitized to what the world hollers out at you and the worldly wise will have something to remark one way or another.

As a kid who grew up in an Arab land where dressing was ultra chic but conservative and then finding my self in college where the style was uber cool and relaxed, I was a square peg in a round hole!

Four years later I arrived with my ripped jeans, tussled hair, heavy silver accessories and varsity tees straight into the corporate world where I was told to chop off my ‘overflowing hairdo’ and get some suits, black or charcoal if you please.

Now, I live in sunny Adelaide where I am back to my ripped jean shorts, flip-flops, floral tops and aviators to give a dollop of oomph. I can easily transform into a form fitting charcoal suit with court shoes and a tightly pulled bun. My stint in the aviation industry taught me that a neat hairdo and stockings always gives the impression of being well groomed.

I learned a lot from being cabin crew for one of the leading airlines of the world. One of the most shocking lessons was that looks aren’t everything, grooming is! Yes, I never believed it until I experienced it! Did you know that aviation uniforms are designed to make everyone look alike? Yes, the idea is to make every crewmember look like as if he or she just rolled off an assembly line! Which means everyone had to look similar whether they were tall or short (minimum height), fat (highest weight acceptable for that height) or thin (minimum acceptable weight), beautiful or average. There were variations I assure you, the criteria for choosing a crew was primarily personality, looks actually came second.

The uniforms are so styled that they overpower the wearers look and instead stress on the bold colours, the strong style and the overall effect. Once the most gorgeous girls wore them they were transformed into, wait for it, mannequins that afforded no competition what so ever to the overwhelming design, contour and colours. Yes, that’s exactly why normal guys in a uniform always look so much dapper and the wow factor just falls off along with the uniform! That’s also another reason, no crewmember actually post pictures of themselves in their uniform, we look much, much better in casuals.

So what’s my point? Clothes and good grooming is what one needs to look awesome. So stop beating yourself over your body type, offcourse by all means exercise if you have to loose those heath-affecting pounds but not because you want to look good. Looking good and feeling good about your body has nothing to do with your weight unless you intend to pose for a bikini photo-shoot for the cover of vogue, other than that it really isn’t important.

The biggest mistake a woman can do is try to look like someone she is not. You need to discover you true unique style, if you are a flower child (I know I am!) then stop trying to wear form fitting little dresses, even if you have a fabulous figure. It’s not you and that should be reason enough. If you always felt comfortable in leather and tight jeans and not just because ‘so and so’ looked wow in it then by all means go for it.

Naturally, if you haven’t been brainwashed by fashion houses and fashion forums into believing what is cool and what is not, then you will ideally end up choosing a style that not only feels good but also compliments your personality and brings out your personality.

So why do so many women end up not looking their natural best? Many factors, brainwashing is top most but also equally important is the fear to be themselves. I should know, I always wanted to wear denim but in my family it was considered unbecoming, I still cannot get myself to wear jeans for socially important events where the dress code is casual.

Another major factor is availability. How many times have you walked into a store wanting something and were told it’s not available, out of stock, no one makes them any more etc.? As a denim girl my signature outfit is stone washed sky blue jeans with a cool, tad oversized white shirt, usually tied. The problem with white shirts is that they never stay white for too long. Having three toddlers with a love for finger painting doesn’t help either.

I cannot recall the number of times I have come away frustrated at not being able to find such a classic, no, not the ones with the fancy cufflinks, no, not the latest form fitting stretchable office whites, no, just a simple white shirt, no, no pockets, it kills the ‘look’.

That’s why I’m excited about thebargainboutique.com.au it is supposed to be the answer to my prayers. With classic pieces and basic standard items that are essential to every wardrobe in classic colours and fabulous fabric, it sounds like a dream come true. I’m waiting fingers crossed and hoping for some goodies that they will be giving during their launch.

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Care for some light reading?: Musings of Antonia Rapheal

Tuesday, 20th February 2018 Time is an unstable commodity, elusive, distracting, and chimeric almost! Almost is more to its fantastical elusive attribute than its certainty. I know that many if not all of the extremely few who do read this will scratch their heads. I have been known; to the unfortunate few who regard me […]

I realized the greatest truth in the biggest lie touted in today’s world, Think different, be innovative. What they, the narrators of the world trends, are actually telling you is that we are bored of the same plot lines, impress us but don’t get too different lest we lose the tethers that still determine our identities. For what would society be if in a split second they could let go of all the walls that enclosed their lives and actually stepped out into the Free world of unregulated creativity?

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Christmas in the southern hemisphere takes a little getting used to since we all have the notion of the perfect white Christmas. Fashion wise it’s the hottest season of the year, literally! Sexy bikinis, festive sequins, and a gorgeous tan; … Continue reading →

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Aussie Fashion blog’s featured makeup writer, Muskaan Ahuja a Dubai based professional Make-up and Special effects Artist has come up with a simple 5-step routine that can transform you into a glam diva. A must have guide for the ever … Continue reading →

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